Best Of
Re: What are you all up to
Grand photos @Wherenext I especially like the water wheel depicted In the ironwork. Glad that you had a good morning's walk.
It has been a much better day here, after a light frost over night, !and it stayed dry until about an hour ago. I was able to get into the caravan, after our morning walk, and give the inside a good clean. I think that the outside will have to wait until Saturday by the looks of the forecast.
Re: Internet abroad
I believe if you want unlimited you will need to source a SIM card abroad. As others have said it's TV that eats the data and you may not be able to access the apps you normally use as your location will not allow some to be used outside of the UK.
We have for the last two summers used a 15Gb Smarty [in a TP-Link router, software set for roaming] which is actually only 12Gb because of a data cap. This along with the 5Gb per month on my phone and frequent free campsite internet has been fine.
My wife is O2 and has I believe 20Gb allowance abroad.
This year I'm taking our Lebera [Vodaphone] unlimited data SIM card from our home 4G router away to the continent. We have 4G internet at home as internet down the phone line is poor in Devon where we live. The unlimited data drops to 30Gb.
We browse the internet, do e-mails and listen to internet radio over breakfast. We will have sufficient data for our needs, and possibly a couple of hours of "TV" if we wished per week.
Colin
Re: Which description most fits the main driver of your outfit?
@peedee - I must admit that I actually had to look up exactly what a semi-auto gearbox was. My Touareg has a torque converter gearbox and has the ability to switch from full auto to manual, just by pushing the gear selector over to the left. I thought all autos where like this? I use the manual option fairly regularly - and especially when doing long descents with the van on the back - to keep the speed down and save on brake wear by using the engine for braking. I'm sure my Discos had the same feature.
With dodgy knees, I wouldn't want to go back to a manual with a clutch pedal!
Re: Internet abroad
Just been looking for deals and apparently the current best sim only deals are with Lebara and ID mobile. I haven't looked too closely at what is involved but both are offering 30Gbs of roaming.
peedee
peedee
Re: What are you all up to
Had a lovely morning today. We had a free morning so as the weather was settled we decided to stay fairly local and go for a walk with some added interest and settled on a walk that would start at Basingwerk Abbey ruins and end up at St.Winefrides Well in Holywell. The walk is now a cycle way as well and tarmac so quite decent underfoot, just as well as there was quite a bit of frost and ice still underfoot. It's about 2 miles between them, uphill along a former railway track that led to a Gunpowder factory (surprisingly in ruins now🤣). It's many a year since we've visited both so I refreshed our memory yesterday by watching an interesting Youtube video about the Well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifj3e_ftU4s
A few photos from the walk.
Another lovely iron fence en route.
Murals of St.Winefride and St.Bueno
Some colonnades surrounding the Well.
The Well itself
There is an area for immersing yourself outside the Well area as the site is visited to this day by approximately 40,000 Visitors and Pilgrims. St.Winefrides Well reportedly holds the distinction of being the longest continually visited Pilgrimage site in the UK.
The remains of the Franciscan Abbey, Basingwerk Abbey. It is open to the public free of charge should anyone wish to visit it.
Some of the structure is still in good shape.
Re: Winter Touring Tips
I don't really do anything different in the UK during freezing weather. I've found the caravan keeps nice and warm on the 1Kw setting on electric but it may take gas and electric to get it warmed up from cold on arrival and if we go out we'll turn down the heating thermostat but still keep it on. If it's really cold then we'll lag the aquaroll but we would definitely recommend have a good supply of water inside the caravan just in case. We use SPs and while the aquaroll has never frozen the taps and water hose might so it's best to turn off the tap and make sure there isn't much water left in the hose in case it freezes. Actually our only frozen pipe once was the waste pipe was so we make sure that's as empty as possible overnight. Other than that a porch awning helps to keep the heat when opening the door.
Re: Winter Touring Tips
Much the same as @Cornersteady although for the past 25 years we have had well insulated motorhomes. In our experience temperatures have to drop well below freezing before you run into problems of water pipes freezing and it is usually these that freeze up well before any external tanks do. We have had trouble free trips down to -2/-3 but have had frozen pipes at -5 and below.
peedee
peedee
Re: Winter Touring Tips
We do similar to @Cornersteady leaving the heating on low power in the caravan when we go out day. If the periods of cold weather are expected to be short lived, or we are moving on soon, I will lag both aquarolls but take the pump off and into the caravan overnight. If we are staying for a longer period then I can lag the pump too and cover the assembly with a waterproof covering. I too will empty the waste water container and use a bucket instead which I empty daily. Arriving on site in cold weather, while setting up, it's heating on and then we both go for a walk with Flyte while the van heats up nicely for our return.
Re: What are you all up to
Super photos @Oneputt the one of the dogs is very cleverly done. We did see a bank of flowering daffodils during Christmas week near Northwich, and a couple of weeks before that there were Snowdrops in flower at Wightwick Manor, near Wolverhampton.
Sorry to hear your sad news @Takethedogalong I hope the lady will be able to manage on her own. Your birthday treat sounds like a lovely present, no doubt you will find lots to do in and around Auld Reekie.
Pleased to read that OH's car passed it's MOT @Wherenext and that it was not overly expensive as anything involving work done at a garage is never cheap these days.
After a couple of rather dull but dry days today we heavy rain all morning, so it was a couple of rather wet walks with Flyte before lunchtime. Thankfully the sun came out and it has remained dry since then. I did manage to get the car cleaned on Sunday and perhaps, now it is a bit warmer, I can do the same with the caravan.
Re: Driving licence 3.5t limit - gov't petition for increase of cat B to 4.2t
And the amounts you mention is a very small sum relative to the amount of a (new) MH of that size would cost I would suggest?
but all so unnecessary when no more skill is required to drive a 4.25 ton vehicle than one of 3.5 tons.
peedee
peedee